‘The Blackening’ Review: Tim Story’s Sharp and Witty Subversion of Horror Tropes

Lovia Gyarkye
·5 min read
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So much has happened in mainstream horror since Jordan Peele released Get Out that it would be understandable if you felt uneasy about The Blackening, a slasher thriller directed by Tim Story (Barbershop). Peele’s feature debut subjected us to a wave — or maybe a better word is tsunami — of copycats and derivatives. They were labeled “social horror,” written furiously about, sometimes critically praised, commercially erratic and left to collect dust.

They quickly became their own kind of joke, a sign of desperate times. These films aspired to Peele’s Get Out but lacked its humor and its smarts. Their narratives were a Mad Libs-esque exercise of transgressions against Black Americans: They were about racist legal codes, police brutality, microaggressions on campus and macroaggressions everywhere. In a frantic rush to tell us something about ourselves, these flicks rarely said anything at all.

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The Blackening is not like those other satires — and what a relief that is. Perhaps cognizant of the crowded arena it’s entering, the movie delights in subverting our expectations at almost every turn. It’s intelligent, aware of its genre’s history (did you see that tagline?) and very funny. The film is based on a Comedy Central sketch of the same name by the comedy group 3PEAT. That short begins in the middle of a chase: A group of Black campers run into a cabin and barricade its doors from the white man hunting them. Horror convention dictates that the Black character will die first. But what happens when everyone is Black? Well, they must sacrifice the Blackest among them. A hilarious argument ensues, forcing the group’s members to reveal secrets that in another situation would get them clowned.

Story’s The Blackening, which was written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and 3PEAT member Dewayne Perkins, elongates the sketch, turning it into an energetic feature filled with amusing twists and keen observations. The film opens on Juneteenth weekend with Shawn (Jay Pharoah) and his girlfriend Morgan (Insecure’s Yvonne Orji) snooping around the Airbnb they’ve rented with friends for a reunion weekend. When the couple stumbles upon a door ominously labeled “Game Room,” they are reluctant to walk in. A bit of mutual reassurance gives them the confidence to unbox the board game in the center of the room. The results are racist: A sambo figure juts out from the middle and adjacent to it sits a stack of cards. Shawn and Morgan have a few minutes to answer a question that tests how Black they are. If they get it right, they live; if they are wrong, they die.

This straightforward premise holds up well over the course of The Blackening, which runs almost two hours; Oliver and Perkins indulge in a lot of entertaining bits without sacrificing the film’s brisk and nimble pacing. When the rest of the group arrives at the Airbnb, Morgan and Shawn are nowhere to be found. It’s not until later, when they notice that mysterious room, that the friends realize the only way to save the couple is to play the sadistic board game.

The action and drama unfold quickly as the friends try to answer as many questions as possible before the automatic timer runs out. Here’s where The Blackening gets clever: The fatal gameplay, with its questions about when Fresh Prince switched Aunt Vivs and the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” gives us a chance to understand the characters as more than just their shallow archetypes. The fights that break out between Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) and her BFF Dewayne (Perkins) reveal the changing dynamics of a years-long, uneven friendship. Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), Lisa’s ex and a serial cheater, tries to rebuild his standing among some members of the group by putting on a brave face. Even supporting characters — King (Melvin Gregg), a rehabilitated gangster; perpetually opinionated Allison (Grace Byers); Shanika (X Mayo), who carries a party in her purse; and nerdy Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) — eventually get fleshed out.

A sturdy screenplay with a strong cast propels The Blackening, giving it satisfying momentum through its funny, stressful, and sometimes simultaneously funny and stressful moments. The performers play well off one another, with Gregg, Byers and Mayo turning in especially fine efforts. Perkins continuously stands out, though, stealing nearly every scene he’s in. He deploys his sharp and witty lines strategically, using them to help audiences build a sense of his character beyond the Gay Best Friend archetype.

Story’s stylish direction balances fright with comedy, switching relatively seamlessly between scenes of murderous thrills and laugh out loud moments. If there’s one flaw in The Blackening, it’s that it might have you cackling too much to remember you’re supposed to be scared. The film pays homage to the slasher tradition, but doesn’t always quite reach its full scare potential. Cecil Gentry’s spare production design does a good job of turning the rural cabin into a death trap for our vacationers, and Angela Hadnagy’s sophisticated costume design underscores how foreign our city friends are to this haunting, wooded environment.

There’s a lot to be impressed by, especially when it comes to how The Blackening delivers its jokes. The moments endemic to Black people’s lives — getting stopped by the police, feeling uneasy in a particular kind of rural town — are presented as they are lived: as a matter of fact. It makes the characters’ behaviors easier to believe, saves them from becoming more symbolic than they need to be, and means the film can play in other ways. The Blackening anticipates an animated audience — the “don’t go in there” warnings and “are you an idiot” groans — and builds that into its humor. The references are fresh and self-aware, too. (There are more than a few times when The Blackening calls itself out). It’s a sharp, fun ride.

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